Physical size and weight: The smaller and lighter, the better.(We discuss rugged portable drives, which are bulkier and more expensive than the portable drives we recommend for most people, in the Competition section.) Build quality: Your portable hard drive should withstand normal wear and tear from being handled and carried in your bag often.But all hard drives die, and it’s still possible to buy a lemon that will die too soon. Only three companies-Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba-still manufacture hard drives, and all of them make reliable options. Reliability: Although reliability is the most important factor for any storage device, solid information on reliability is hard to come by.
